Sebastian Rowlands presents their first solo show ‘AH: After Hysterectomy’, at Colonnade House. Showcasing new works made in response to their gender-affirming surgery last year, this exhibition presents a ritual performance as an interactive, multi-sensory installation. This is the first time this work is being shown publicly.
AH: After Hysterectomy documents a ritual performed on the first new moon after Sebastian’s hysterectomy, in which they wore a ritual ‘dress’ stitched with 422 marks for every new moon that marked their life. Five white marks recorded their birth, first period, starting testosterone, top surgery, and their hysterectomy. Submerging into the sea at sunrise, the water washed all away to leave only remnant marks. This was a cleansing. A rebirth. A self-made ritual to mark a turning point in their gender journey.
The installation offers a glimpse into the emotional state of gender euphoria. Audiences are invited to touch, smell, listen, and see. Transformed objects from the ritual hold traces left behind by things which no longer exist – the impression of a teabag drunk after submersion, a fishing fly from the fisherman who held witness. The ‘dress’ as a structure of remaining stitches. A video recording of the performance plays hidden being a pinhole. A cocooning soundscape echoes the waves as salt and samphire scent fills the room.
Ceramic sculptures weave into this installation as additional responses to Sebastian’s hysterectomy. Both sinuous and fractures, dripping and delicate, they nod to the complex bodily and sensual transformations which blossomed in recovery. The intersections between tentative physical healing and the limitless joy of being called into a body which finally feels like home, and how desire filled up the spaces between.
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